World Archaeological Congress

Cultural Landscapes in the 21st Century. Cultural Landscapes, Laws, Management, and Public Participation: Heritage as a challenge of citizenship

An Inter-Congress of the World Archaeological Congress

Forum UNESCO - University and Heritage is a worldwide network of universities created in 1995 by the Culture Sector of UNESCO. It is currently managed by the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), Spain, jointly with the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO.

The Forum UNESCO network aims to share the experience and expertise of its members and to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field of heritage in a spirit of solidarity and inter-cultural dialogue.

The network also aims to link together over 400 universities and their staff and students with researchers and heritage professionals in the multiple cross-cutting disciplines related to cultural and natural heritage.

Forum UNESCO comprises a number of joint activities such as team research projects, regional and national workshops, international seminars and conferences, students associations and youth fieldwork (summer universities and/or conservation field projects), publications, etc.

The Forum UNESCO University and Heritage 10th International conference was hosted by the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies (ICCHS) at Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, between 11th and 16th April 2005.

Forum UNESCO and Newcastle University are particularly pleased that this 10th conference was designated an Inter-Congress of the World Archaeological Congress (WAC).

The Seminar was also supported by the City of Newcastle, the Council for British Archaeology, and the UK branch of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS UK).

Cultural Landscapes in the 21 st Century

Cultural Landscapes, Laws, Management, and Public Participation: heritage as a challenge of citizenship

Monday 11th to Saturday 16th April 2005

Humans have always interacted with their environment and helped to create and modify the landscapes in which they live. The last decade or so has seen not only a significant increase in the scope and in some instances, speed of such developments, but also of our appreciation and understand of these changes. These range from the suggested impact of global warming, through localised changes in agricultural practice and a variety of forms of economic exploitation, fronted perhaps by developments in tourism, to developments in how landscapes are viewed and studied academically. These, and many other developments, have led to the increased management of landscapes and to more extensive formal protection within national and regional laws. Some argue this has been at the expense of local community interaction with, and control over, their own local environments.

This conference looked at landscapes in all of their possible manifestations, through a wide variety of academic disciplines and through the voices of some of those who live and interact with landscapes. It investigated the supposed division between cultural and natural landscapes and questioned the value of this division. The conference was arranged around seven major themes (see below).